


Beneath the Surface( there are Sharks)

by Bluewolf02



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Haruno Sakura Has a Clan, Haruno Sakura-centric, Hatake Kakashi is a Bad Teacher, Kiri!Sakura, Konoha treats civilian-born shinobi as cannon fodder, Sakura is so done with team Seven’s bullshit, Strong Haruno Sakura
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:22:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28436829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf02/pseuds/Bluewolf02
Summary: Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno knew when they came to Konoha that being two no-name immigrants from the Land of Iron would be better than being a Kunoichi from Kiri’s Hoshigaki clan and her husband. Their daughter Sakura grows up with a shinobi-education( not Konohan) in a simple civilian household, always hiding her trued self from others, behind the mask of a stupid and all-brain weak fangirl. But after she realises how much Konoha and her team value her, she abandons a village where she has no home and no friends, looking for her place in her mother’s village: Kiri.
Comments: 49
Kudos: 290





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! This is my first story and I’m very excited about it. If you’re giving me a chance after my “marvellous” Summary, then thank you very much! Good or bad, leave me a review if you can. I don’t know where this fic is going, and updates will be sporadic, becaus this year I have to study for the exam that marks the end of high school in my country. Last warning: my first language is not English, so if you find an error, please tell me!   
> I’m not Kishimoto and I’ve not written Naruto, knowing this, please enjoy this chapter!

Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno arrived in Konoha on the first of February after a long trip. The guards at the gate saw only two civilians, one of whom was a visibly pregnant woman, and reported to T&I that there was nothing of note about them, if one didn’t consider that they came from the Land of Iron, fact proven by the unusual colour of the man’s hair. 

The couple was observed for two more weeks, before they were deemed harmless, and were granted without problem citizenship, for them and their unborn child.

* * *

On March 28, Mebuki Haruno gave birth with a surprising ease for a first-time civilian mother, but in the middle of the childbirth, not one of the civilian nurses, not trained to use or sense chakra, noticed this particular detail. Right after the mother delivered the strangely quiet child, a girl with pink hair, the father insisted on holding the newborn, subtly encouraging the only nurse left in the room to take care of the bureaucracy- part of the event. So, with nobody in the room other than the child and her parents, Mebuki took her daughter in her arms. The latter opened her mouth, and in a try to make a smile, she showed the tiny _pointed_ teeth already forming right after her birth.

The woman sighed, and her husband asked her :“Mebuki, dear, can you make something about this situation?”

“Yes, but we have to be quick, this cannot be seen or the ruse will end too soon.” Then, the child was passed back to her father, while her mother made hand seals, casting a clan-only jutsu, used for generations to blend better in hostile environments.

‘ _Hoshigaki’_ Mebuki thought, ‘ _You are really one of us, little one_.‘ When the pink-haired baby opened her mouth again to yawn, there was no tooth to be seen.

A moment later, the nurse opened the door and smiled at the _normal, civilian_ couple before her.

“Because both the mother and the baby are healthy ,and I’ve prepared the birth certificate while you were greeting your adorable child, you only have to say her name for the official documents before you’ll be free to go.”

Mebuki and Kizashi exchanged a look, before focusing their attention on the little girl that was busy trying to make unintelligible sounds with her mouth( _no tooth in view_ ) at the nurse. It was the end of March, soon cherry blossoms would bloom, and what a coincidence, that a girl with pink hair would be born in that exact period. Kizashi spoke next, a big smile gracing his lips, “Sakura, her name is Haruno Sakura”.

And thus, began the story of a kunoichi whose childhood lullabies were too much dark for Konoha’s standard, just like the waters that surrounded the home of her mother’s family. A child of the Bloody Mist grew far from home, among leaves rather than on water, waiting and posing as a civilian-born kunoichi, nothing more than cannon fodder, destined to bleed and die to protect clan members in missions and wars.

But her mother liked to repeat her a phrase during the next twelve years of her life, “Be calm as Kiri’s waters Sakura, fool them with your act. **_Beneath the surface of the sea_** , after all, _**there are**_ **_deadly sharks_** my dear.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura’s life from her early childhood to the consequences of Orochimaru’s invasion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! As you can see, this chapter is way longer than the first, mostly because it covers a huge arc of time. Some events are only partially mentioned, because seriously, I've read in all types of sauces descriptions of the Wave Mission and The Chunin exam. Let’s just that if there are blank parts in my tale, then that event went similarly to canon for one reason or another.  
> Please tell me if I’m a bit confusing, this is my first attempt to write a story in ennui that can be enjoyed by other people aside from myself.  
> Enjoy!

Sakura’s first three years of life were pretty uneventful. Her parents opened a shop intending to sell more exotic products when Sakura would be old enough to travel around the nations with them.

One oddity that their neighbours gave them was the lack of effort on Kizashi and Mebuki’ s part to make their daughter play with other children, but this was quickly discarded as the consequence of them working both while taking care of little Sakura at the same time. 

Things changed a bit when Sakura turned three. Children’s books, made mostly of bright pictures, were quickly substituted by books read mainly by civilian teens, and then, when she was between four and five years old, by scrolls taken from the public section of the library. It seemed like the pink-haired girl took to books like a duck( or Kiri-nin) to water, and her parents were only even further pleased when she understood and recited all written material she could get her hands on by memory alone.

But Mebuki and Kizashi begin merchants, meant that to sell foreign goods, they had to travel outside of the Land of Fire, and when Sakura turned five it was quickly decided that she would come with them.

Their trips usually lasted between one and three months, and many were the countries they visited( but never, _never Kiri_ ), and when in nations without shinobi villages, Haruno Mebuki, a simple civilian that tended to go unnoticed even by ninja more often than not, became Hoshigaki Mebuki, with teeth as sharp as her daughter’s, and eyes as white as her brother’s.

So she started to teach her daughter how to sense and mould chakra. Another pleasant discovery was made during one of such lessons, Sakura had an innate chakra control, that mixed with the bigger-than-average chakra pools typical of the Hoshigaki clan, would one day make her a fearsome kunoichi in battle.

It was not even a question what Sakura’s future career would be, the girl was not only talented but seemed to have also a bloodlust that could not be quelled by a civilian life in the shadows. Even an administrative position as a paper ninja meant more action than a civilian’s life, thanks to the sporadic mission outside the village.

But it was also true that Konoha was not Kiri, and they usually made an effort to maintain their reputation as the “Nice” Hidden Village.

‘ _What a joke!’_ , Mebuki thought one day when thinking about the differences between the Bloody Mist and The Village Hidden in the Leaves.

‘ _They really think to have the higher moral ground between all of the other great shinobi nations, when they are the worst of all. When Yagura was not mad, before the Blood Purges started, all genin who survived the Graduation became valuable resources of the village, and Jonin sensei gave the same attention to every one of their students. Instead, Konoha’s Academy does not try to make an effort to bridge the gap between its students without kekkei genkai and those who have it_.’

And she was not wrong, so, when Sakura was six years old, and they were traveling towards Suna, she told her daughter words that she then remembered for a very long time.

“ Always remember Sakura, that Konoha will not value your life, because civilian-born shinobi and orphans are cannon fodder to protect those with a clan that covers their backs. So you’ll have to seem physically weak but clever, focused more on boys than on training, or else they’ll start to watch you more and more, and _that_ would mean going on more dangerous missions with shinobi more important than you, where you would be more expendable than them in the eyes of the team leader.”

* * *

As Sakura grew partially inside and partially outside the Konoha’s walls, so did her hatred towards a village that would always see her as a second-class citizen for her supposed ‘lack of heritage’.

So, a few days after her eighth birthday, after dinner, she asked her mother why they lived in such a place, and not in their country.

Mebuki sighed, took Sakura’s hands and sat on the sofa in their little living room with her daughter, and explained:

“Sakura, my little shark. You have to understand that before you were born, before Yagura, the fourth Mizukage went ‘mad’, I lived with my clan and was a hunter-nin, one of the most accomplished I have to say. Fortunately, my role gave me anonymity outside the village, and Konoha had no chance to know who I really was when your father and I arrived here. But one thing at a time, our story begins when I met your father during a mission. I was solo, and had to capture an A-rank missing-nin. I chased him for three months, until I managed to corner him in the Land of Iron. My main weapon in battle, as it’s common for many Kiri-nin, was a sword, and we battled for hours, until he was dead. But the bastard thought to have a last laugh before he died” she frowned at the memory, “and he managed to gut me with a poisonous kunai. Then, when I thought that a stupid moment of distraction would mean my death, as I had already used in the previous months my first-aid kit, I met your father.”

Sakura was now more curious than ever, her parents had never shared the story of their encounter with her, not even in their home, full of Privacy-seals hid behind paintings and under carpets.

“He was a samurai, and I clearly was a ninja who was not respecting the pact of mutual neutrality among us shinobi and his people, but all the same, he saved me. Your father’s land is snowy and icy all-year, but there are some unique herbs that grow only there. Kizashi was not only a samurai, but also a doctor: while he didn’t know how to use healing chakra, with herbs alone he managed to contrast the poison that, at that point, had made me unconscious and on the verge of death.

“I woke up a week after the battle in a stranger’s home, without my mask but with my sword at the side of the bed I was put in. Then, this pink-haired samurai entered the room, and asked me how I felt. In the beginning, I didn’t think much of your father, but I didn’t have any other option apart from accepting his kindness, as he told me I would not be able to move for at least another month thanks to my wounds.

“In the end, we bonded over our knowledge of swords, arguing over the effectiveness of our very different styles. Before we knew it, the month ended, and the kind stranger had become Kizashi, and I was not ready to separate from him. But I had to come back to my village, where I had family and some friends. Kizashi chose to follow me back to the Land of Water and to live with me. When we arrived, almost 5 months after the beginning of my hunt, the village was pure chaos, the Blood Purges had begun. All the same, I had to report to Yagura, the Mizukage. We graduated together and were put on the same team, so we were friends of long date, even though he hadn’t treated me as more than a subordinate from some time. But he saw me in his office, and he appeared almost frantic, saying the strangest of things, that he would manage to be himself only for some minutes, and that I had to leave Kiri with the rest of my clan. I then told him about Kizashi and my mission, but he confirmed that I had to leave, and he wouldn’t make me a missing-nin like my brother, who he said he had not been strong enough for.”

Sakura had wide eyes, and asked: “ But what did he mean? Not strong enough for Uncle Kisame?”

“I don’t know, Sakura. Years have passed, and the only explanation I have for Yagura’s weird behaviour is mind control, which is almost ridiculous, considering that he wasn’t only a Kage, but also a the Sanbi’s Jinchuriki.

Sakura exclaimed: “ But who could have a power so great as to subjugate him? What did you do after you left his office?”

Mebuki’s eyes expressed deep regret when she answered her daughter,

“I’m not sure, but there were voices about Konoha’s Sharingan users, voices that said that a Sharingan could control a tailed beast. So, to shed some light on the matter, Kizashi and I decided to come to Konoha after aiding the clan to hide from Yagura. When we arrived here, I was pregnant with you, so we easily fooled Konoha-nin in thinking of us as a simple civilian couple from the Land of Iron, not a strong doctor-samurai and a Hunter-nin from Kiri whose body count is pretty high even for someone in my profession. Unfortunately, I discovered nothing about Yagura’s sudden ‘madness’, outside from voices about an Uchiha having controlled the Nine-tails during its attack some months after your birth. Not even Konoha’s archives have answers to these questions, no Uchiha are missing, and the last traitor in the clan was Madara, who was killed in battle by the first Hokage, so even he couldn’t have been the culprit.”

Silence reigned in the room, minutes passed, then Sakura spoke again:

“Mother, thank you for answering my questions( ‘ _even though right now I have more questions than answers_ ‘). I’ll do my best to survive Konoha’s hypocrisy while looking weak and too girlish to be a proper ninja. I’ll make both you and Father proud.” , Mebuki smiled, tired for remembering about a period of her life long gone, “ I know you will, my little shark. Now go to bed, or tomorrow you’ll have no force to read your precious books.”

Sakura kissed her mother goodnight, then went to bed. At least now she knew why her parents had chosen Konoha when leaving their nations.

* * *

Some months after that conversation, the First of September finally arrived. Sakura dreaded that day, she would have to lie about herself and her abilities more and more until graduation came, in hope of being put on a normal team. She went to the Academy alone, her parents gone on a business trip that could not be postponed in time. She entered the main building, surrounded by many other children, and tried to find the list with her name. She would be in class. There were too many students for one class, so it was decided that clan heirs would be put in a separate class from civilianborns and orphans. It happened almost every year, and this year was _so_ full of clan heirs that Sakura asked herself if their parents had programmed it between themselves in a way. She was put in class 1-B, the one for ~~cannon fodder~~ civilian-borns and orphans. When reading her classmates’ surnames, she was shocked to find an Uzumaki. Her mother had told her what had happened to Uzushio, “ _Kiri does not lie about her dark past to her children, Sakura. We are not Konoha.”_

‘ _Right_ ’, she thought gloomily, ‘ _who knows if this Uzumaki knows about Konoha abandoning its main ally to the mercy of three other great Hidden Villages.’_

“These years are certainly going to be eventful”, she muttered darkly under her breath.

* * *

Four years passed from the beginning of Sakura’s lessons at the Academy, and the pink-haired girl was the only one left of her class, now assimilated to the clan kids’ class. Sakura had graduated as top kunoichi of her class, to the disbelief of her ‘enemy in love’ Yamanaka Ino. Now only team assignments were left to be announced...

* * *

‘ _Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke_ ’ Sakura thought grimly while waiting for her new jonin sensei, ‘ _Hopefully, this man will have a little bit of sense in him and find a way to manage this two’s rivalry, and maybe he will even “teach” me how to hold a sword, so I won’t have to hold back my strength anymore at least in one field.’_

* * *

Her hopes were vain because her _fucking_ teacher was none other than the infamous Hatake Kakashi. This man was one of the most known ninja from Konoha, and he had a great place on the Bingo Book( her mother had stolen one to make her study it).

‘ _So I really am the cannon fodder of this team, my new sensei is Sharingan no Kakashi, the last Loyal Uchiha is also here and with him one of the last Uzumaki, and if my sensing doesn’t lie he’s also the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. I have to be useful but not too relevant if I want to be in one piece at the end of missions. Fortunately, a jonin of this calibre was put here to protect these two, he’ll certainly teach us some useful techniques!_ ‘

* * *

It was midday of the following day, Sakura had eaten a small breakfast that morning, not trusting her new teacher, and she sat at Naruto’s right as the Uzumaki not was tied to the pole.

She sighed, and thought bitterly: ‘ _Mother was right, this is a teamwork exercise, and these two haven’t understood anything! The Uchiha is eating his food without a care in the world, if I want to make us pass...’_

Then, she glanced at Naruto, who was looking with hunger in her eyes her bento, almost pleading her to give him a bit.

She took with her chopstick a rice ball and put it right in front of Naruto’s mouth.

“Eat”, she said, “But Sakura, Sensei will not pass us if you break the rules’”, he answered while glancing in all directions to look for signs of Kakashi’s presence.

“You’ll be of no use in the following hours if you don’t eat anything. She’s right, dobe.”, said the Uchiha boy, offering to Naruto a piece of his lunch.

“Thank you guys!” , Naruto smiled at them gratefully, “ We’ll take the bells after lunch!”

Then, with a rumble of thunder in the background( ‘ _clearly a genjutsu_ ’), Kakashi appeared.

“You’ve broken the rules”, he said in a grave voice, “ you’ve fed your teammate when I explicitly said you not to, so you... pass!”

He proceeded to do a speech about rules and abandoning teammates.

‘ _All crap, if one thinks about how Konoha works. The entire Konohan Shinobi system is made to advantage those who have connections, so in a certain way you are abandoned at a certain point.‘_

* * *

They’ve been ‘training’ for weeks, and she hadn’t learned anything new or useful. ‘ _Thank Kami for mother’s lessons_ ‘, now they had their first C Rank, Mebuki had asked her daughter to be careful and to pay attention at all times to her surroundings, even if all seemed normal.

* * *

A week had passed from their first encounter with Zabuza, and Sakura’s blood was still ignited from the encounter with one of the famous Seven Swordmen of the Mist. It was a bit disappointing to not be looked at all from one from Kiri like her, but she grudgingly recognized that for her mask of sweet, weak girl it was better like this.

Kakashi taught them tree-walking, and when he saw that she had already ‘grasped’ it, he asked her to go watch the client on the bridge, like she wasn’t important enough to pass on another technique or exercise.

She went without complying and passed her first-day training with a staff to dust off her skills with a sword.

It was almost the end of the working day, and the workers had invited her to eat something with them while they rested, when she caught an interesting discussion between two of the men.

“You know”, one man with black hair said,” they say that the Bloody Mist has finally ended”.

“Are you joking?”, replied a blond-haired man with an incredulous face,” It’s been more than thirteen years from the beginning of the purge.”

“I know, but the other day a foreigner said a new Mizukage has been chosen, and that the other has been killed by the rebels, who are now in power.”

Blond-hair grinned, “And maybe this would mean more countries to trade with when Gato won’t be here anymore!”

The two continued to discuss back and forth about the issue of Kiri’s new leadership, while Sakura was absorbed in deep thought.

At one point, she interrupted them: “Excuse me, do you know who might be this New Mizukage?” Black-hair clutched his chin, thinking for a few minutes e fore answering her: “Kunoichi-san, I think that the foreigner muttered about a certain Terumi Mei before going on his way.”

She readily thanked him, before storing away the information in her mind. This was an important development to talk about to her parents. Without Yagura in Kiri, maybe they would be welcomed, even if she wasn’t.

* * *

Zabuza was dead, and so was Haku. ‘ _Another of Kiri’s bloodlines lost_ ‘ Sakura thought bitterly, ‘ _What if I had told them about the change of the Mizukage?_ ‘ All the same, it didn’t matter anymore. They would stay another four days to rest before going back to Konoha.

The fight had been intense, but before Naruto’s arrival, there was a moment when Haku brought her in his trap of mirrors, and with a Kunai to her throat asked Sasuke to surrender. She had caught Kiakashi looking at her for a few seconds, before discarding her and going back to his own fight. She had known that she was only cannon fodder in their eyes, but this was the last straw for her. Sasuke’s answer was more expected, but it hurt all the same.

” **Kill her, she’s a weak no one and only her civilian parents would miss her**.”

She cried by herself for hours before Zabuza’s grave, and when she returned to Tazuna’s home with puffy eyes and her usual smile on her face no one, not even Naruto, who every other day asked her to go on a date with him, asked her what she had done all day and how she was.

_‘I have no one in Konoha apart from my parents.’_

That night, while everybody was sleeping, she masked her chakra, leaving a shadow-clone on her bed, and went to Zabuza’s grave, with a new decision in mind. Until she was promoted to chunin, she had the right to retire as a shinobi and assume full civilian-status again. This would consent her to emigrate to Kiri with her family. After all, with the death of the Uchiha Clan, there were very few chances that her mother would find something about Yagura’s mind control outside of what she had already found.

But to emigrate to Kiri she had to demonstrate that she would fit in the Bloody Mist, or she had to send them a symbol, something they would thank her for... Zabuza’s sword, the famous Kubikiribocho.

She arrived at her destination and took the sword from the earth. It seemed to make her blood pump faster, and an adrenaline rush passed through her entire body. But in the end, she had to put the massive sword in a scroll made for preserving weapons. The temptation to grab the sword for herself was very present, but in long term, this would benefit her more. Taking a piece of parchment, she wrote what followed:

‘ _At the attention of Terumi Mei, the Fifth Mizukage._

_Mizukage-Sama, my name is Hoshigaki Sakura, and at the moment I’m a Konoha genin. I write to you because my family left the Land of Water to escape from the bloodline purges of your predecessor, and I would like to formally ask you to grant me and my parents, Hoshigaki Mebuki and Haruno Kizashi, full citizenship and rights while in Kiri. To live in Konoha without causing problems, me and my mother assumed my father’s last name, so if you would like to contact me, please look for Haruno Sakura._

_As a token for my plea to you, in the scroll sent with this missive there is Kubikiribocho, the sword of the late Zabuza, killed in battle in the Land of Waves. I ask you only to consider my request, if not for me, then at least for my parents. My mother, born and grown in Kiri, still longs for her home._

_Yours faithfully, Hoshigaki Sakura._ ’

* * *

The following morning, Sakura cornered Tsunami, and asked her to give the scroll and the letter to the first Kiri-nin with at least chunin rank that would pass in Wave.

Both scroll and letter were sealed with a seal known only by Kiri-non that her mother had taught her. Sakura didn’t know if it was still used, but this would only prove a little more her identity.

She couldn’t be found sending them in Konoha, and Tsunami was the only one who had seen how the rest of her team considered her, saying that whatever she would need in the future, she would always be welcome in her home.

When the time to go arrived goodbyes were exchanged, and with their belongings packed, Team Seven set off for Konoha.

* * *

**(A.N.: I’m totally skipping the chunin exams, Sakura can’t show her skills because she literally should be able to do nothing thanks to Kakashi. Only one important thing changes: Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno die during the Konoha Crush. Mebuki and Kizashi are fighters, but they were taken by surprise when one of Orochimaru’s summons passes right over their home and destroys it with them in. The story resumes at the end of part one. Naruto leaves the village with Jiraya, Sasuke is with Orochimaru but contrary to canon Sakura does not want to become Tsunade’s apprentice.)**

* * *

No parents. No home. No team. This was the situation that greeted Sakura four months after the invasion. It was the beginning of December, and the orphan- apartment she was given after her parents’ death during Orochimaru’s invasion was not the best to live in in winter. Kakashi had apparently started doing Anbu missions again, and her two teammates were studying ( officially or as traitors) under two of the Sannin outside of Konoha. She was almost tempted to become Tsunade’s apprentice out of spite, but in the end she knew that this would have been a desire of her mask, not Hoshigaki Sakura’s desire.

When she went in her home to find whatever was salvageable of what were now her belongings instead of her parents’. Under a floorboard in her parents’ room, she found a box and a scroll with blood seals on them, linked specifically to her blood. Opening them, she found copies of correspondence between her and the fourth Mizukage, sent just after her birth during her parents’ first business trip outside Konoha. The letters said that Yagura recognised her birth and granted her Kiri-citizenship, and the chance to return should he not be in power. There was also an album with photos of Mebuki Hoshigaki while she was still a Kiri-nin, and she recognised some of the people with her as famous shinobi and missing-nin, among them the most present was her maternal uncle, Hoshigaki Kisame.

In the scroll instead Sakura found many of her mother’s old dresses, for missions and training, many of the latter group with the symbol of the Hoshigaki clan sewn on them. 

Mebuki left her daughter her swords: a tanto able to channel chakra, and a big double-handed sword, more suited for the Hoshigaki fighting style from her mother, also able to channel chakra. There was another sword that Sakura thought could have been her father’s, typically used by samurai from the Land of Iron.

But the most important thing that was present in the scroll was a summoning-contract, precisely the **Shark** contract, from generations bonded to the Hoshigaki clan.

These things were all put in a scroll, which was sealed in a seal-tattoo that she had drawn on her arm.

She didn’t know why, but she felt like she was preparing to leave Konoha. She had the sensation that things would change soon for her.

_And she was very right._

* * *

Sakura took on various solo missions as a genin until the end of December, usually aiding with the reconstruction efforts.

Then, one day, she was surprised when a letter of all things, was left when she was occupied on a mission on her kitchen’s table.

It seemed rather unassuming at first, a folded piece of paper with some lines on it. But as she placed knowingly her hand on the blood seal, it became an elaborate parchment with the Mizukage’s stamp on it.

_To Hoshigaki Sakura,_

_As your mother had already settled with my predecessor the question of your citizenship, I only have to confirm that you and your parents are more than welcome in Kiri. I’m very pleased with your gift, and if you would like it, you will be more than welcome to become a Kiri-Kunoichi._

_Someone will escort you on a boat from Wave on February 15._

_Fifth Mizukage, Terumi Mei._

Sakura was shocked but elated by the positive response, even though she would have to tell the Mizukage to send transport for only a person instead of three. Thinking that whoever had entered her home was probably still around waiting for a confirm, she wrote about the new circumstances to the other woman, and left the new letter on the table.

She had a village to leave.

* * *

The following day, Sakura went to the Hokage’s office and asked to be let in whenever Tsunade would be free to see her.

After three long hours, a woman named Shizune called her.

This was the first time that Sakura found herself alone with Tsunade( if one didn’t count the Anbu in the room and Shizune), and didn’t know what behaviour she would have to assume in front of the other woman, sprawled behind her desk, with a bottle of sake in one hand and a pen in the other.

The Godaime Hokage’s gaze posed on her after she had entered, then the blond-haired woman talked:

“Haruno, tell me what do you need. I hope it’s something important if you’ve waited so long outside the door.”

Sakura gulped but her voice was firm as she answered:

“Yes Hokage-sama, I have decided to return to civilian-status and to go looking for my parents’ family outside of Konoha.”

That amber gaze focused even more on the pinkette’s figure, too tall for Konoha’s standard height, hair of a too particular colour, and cold unwavering green eyes that met hers with unusual intensity when confronted with the usual Konoha’s fresh genin’s.

“Are you really sure about your decision? As a genin, you have the right to renounce to this line of work and leave the village or work as a civilian, as you haven’t been around sensitive information. “

“I am sure, Hokage-same. There’s nothing more for me here”

“Then, give me your headband, and you are free to go. The bureaucratic part will be taken care of by some poor fellow or the other in the office on the ground floor. You will be free to go by tomorrow morning. If you’ll abandon Konoha, your citizenship will be revoked and you’ll have to reapply for it if you’ll rethink about where you want to leave and work in the future. “

Sakura took the forehand protector out of her pocket and left it on Tsunade’s table.

“Thank you for your time, Hokage-sama.”, she said bowing,” I’ll go tomorrow morning at first light. I have no property or possession, so I’m ready to go.”

Then, the older woman gave her another calculating look and dismissed her.

* * *

The following morning, with her possessions in a storage-seal tattooed on her body, Hoshigaki Sakura left the village Hidden in the Leaves, ready to start a new life in another country.

‘ _Mother, father, I’m leaving Konoha. Kiri is waiting for me. I’ll make the both of you proud_.‘

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is today’s chapter. If you have doubts critiques, or you want to say that you love this madness just like me, then leave a review and I’ll greatly appreciate your effort!  
> It’s almost 3 am and I should probably sleep, but honestly finishing this chapter was way more important, because in chapter three, we’ll begin to see what Sakura will do in Kiri( even I don't know it at this moment). I’m really sorry if you think that I should have put more attention on Sakura’s abilities, but I wanted to put this chapter behind me before going into the details( clothes, scenery, summons, abilities, battles).  
> If you still like this story after you’ve read this, see you next time!

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is the end of chapter one. I’ve read a little bit of basic shark-biology while writing this chapter, and I’ve theorised that because the Hoshigaki clan has some of the physical aspects of sharks, Mebuki and Kizashi expected Sakura to be born with teeth. For those who don’t know( like me a week ago) sharks have many teeth, and any lost one is soon replaced. Mebuki technique was developed by Hoshigaki clanmembers for infiltration missions, and during the Bloody Mist became used to hide children and those who had a shark-like appearance without being able to defend themselves from Yagura’s purges. I hope that I haven’t bored you to death with this explanation, but I felt that it was a bit necessary.   
> See you next time and Happy Holidays to you all!


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